You can see that there are two southbound evening trains from Chicago, one that leaves at 4 pm and one that leaves at 8 pm. Of course, there should be a morning train leaving Chicago at 7 am or so, arriving in Champaign at 9:30 am.

You can also see that there are two northbound trains, one that leaves Carbondale at 3 am and one that leaves Carbondale at 4 pm. The 3 am train is the City of New Orleans, and that train can run hours and hours late. There should be a train that leaves Carbodale at 5 am or so, so that if the City of New Orleans is very late, the reliable train that starts in Carbondale can pick people up along the route, capping the delay at two hours.

I think this would be great for Champaign, and it would only cost $3 million or so. As revenue from the train goes up, the cost to the state would then go down.

Of course, this would also be good for every other city along the route, especially Carbondale, to connect these cities to Chicago. Students would really benefit as well.

Can we find another $3 million in the state budget to get adequate Amtrak service on this route? Ask Governor Blagojevich here to do just that.